Out And About: Friday 26 June 2015
In the lead up to Friday 26 June I attended a function with Zonnebloem Wines.
Zonnebloem Wines
Last Friday I attended what has to be the most interesting function I have been to in quite some time. Jani-Mari from De Kock Communications invited me to be out and about at the Distell Adam Tas Cellars for the Lauréat blending event, courtesy of Zonnebloem Wines. I shall be posting more about what we did, and why our team won in due course but in the meantime, I am sharing the photographs from the day.
Blending wines is really hard work, and this is what I will be dealing with in depth in a future post. We only had a few wines to choose from, but for the Lauréat, 30 wines are tasted.
We were truly blessed to be able to have our lunch in The Tabernacle. This is where the Zonnebloem wines were originally blended and the room is considered sacred and is only used in exceptional circumstances.
We were served pastries for morning tea, and then an amazing lunch, with the emphasis on smoke. Our starter was a Zonnebloem deconstructed Caesar salad, sourdough bread (that was amazing) with smoked marrow bones and herbed butter. This was paired with the Zonnebloem Limited Edition Sauvignon Blanc 2013 which had a ripe green smell and a palate of gooseberries. Our main course was Stellenbosch vine-smoked slow-cooked lamb served with tostadas, sour cream and salsa, as well as an autumnal salad with smoked almonds, seasonal leaves and flowers. Our wine for this course was the Zonnebloem Lauréat 2012 which is dry and soft and full of red berries and a hint of light smoke on the nose. To end we were served Lauréat red wine spice ice-cream and barley malt ice-cream with smashed crumble. The smoke was too much for me by this stage so I concentrated more on the Limited Edition Zonnebloem Pinotage 2010 that is full of black cherry and a dark cocoa ‘feel’ which comes from the Hungarian barrels used to age the wine.
Disclosure: I was invited to attend this function without being required to blog about it. This post is in line with my blogging policy.
What I blogged June 26:
- one year ago – Dried Plum And Almond Rusks
- two years ago – Osteria Francescana
- four years ago – Friday’s Food Quiz
I love squash blossoms!
Me too, but I never seem to find any here 🙂
A delight to read, Tandy, and joining in tasting all the flavours. Looking forward to your next post about the blending.
Thanks Barbara 🙂
Looks wonderful Tandy! Sounds like you’ve been having fun! 🙂
I have been having loads of fun 🙂
Those smoked dishes sound so interesting! Especially the smoked marrow bones (I love bone marrow) 🙂
I love marrow bones as well 🙂
My ideal day out!
You would have loved it Sally!